Beware the latest spate of revenue scams doing the rounds

Another year, another batch of poorly written emails from scammers targeting everyone and anyone – with revenue refunds the order of the day.

Dodgy Irish tax and customs emails have become far more common in email inboxes as 2016 comes to a close, with quite a few variations on the theme in recent weeks.

ESET Ireland reports of a handful of examples, one of which we received ourselves – though they all seem poorly executed.

ESET’s first example is incredibly bare and showcases an obvious lack of effort from the scammers.

The subject says ‘Refund Invoice ID#: 73867522’ and the content claims there is a pending €161.00 refund, offering a link ‘Refund NOW’, which leads to a fraudulent website.

Image: ESET Ireland

The second, more detailed example is one we received a few days ago, entitled ‘Revenue – Tax Refund’. It comes from a .ie email address that looks legit, with the incentive of €244.79 attempting to lure us in.

“This is the last and Final notice we will be sending regarding this issue. You are require to Submit the tax refund request using the reference below (sic).”

Again, there is a simple click-through link, followed by a threat of criminal prosecution if users fill in anything wrong. The sign off, as if you needed one, is a dead giveaway though.